Acts of the Apostles
1:1
2:47
3:1 5:41
6:1
12:25
13:1
Prisoner to
Rome
Witness into Gentile
Territory
Witnesses to the Resurrection
Witness in Judea,
Samaria
P
r
o
l
o
g
u
e
Witness in Jerusalem
P
e
n
t
e
c
o
s
t
21:36
21:37
28:15
E
p
i
l
o
g
u
e
28:16-31
Acts of the Apostles
Introduction
1:1-2:47
1:1
2:47
3:1 5:41
6:1
12:25
13:1
Prisoner to
Rome
Witness into Gentile
Territory
Witnesses to the Resurrection
Witness in Judea,
Samaria
P
r
o
l
o
g
u
e
Witness in Jerusalem
P
e
n
t
e
c
o
s
t
21:36
21:37
28:15
E
p
i
l
o
g
u
e
28:16-31
Climax
28:27-28
Acts of the Apostles
1:1
2:47
3:1 5:41
6:1
12:25
13:1
Prisoner to
Rome
Witness into Gentile
Territory
Witnesses to the Resurrection
Witness in Judea,
Samaria
P
r
o
l
o
g
u
e
Witness in Jerusalem
P
e
n
t
e
c
o
s
t
For this
people's heart
has become
calloused; they
hardly hear
with their ears,
and they have
closed their
eyes.
Otherwise they
might see with
their eyes,
hear with their
ears,
understand
with their
hearts and
turn, and I
would heal
them.'
"Therefore I
want you to
know that
God's salvation
been sent
28:15 has
28:16-31
to the Gentiles,
and they will
listen!"
21:36
21:37
E
p
i
l
o
g
u
e
Acts of the Apostles
1:1
2:47
3:1 5:41
God not confined spatially
6:1
12:25
13:1
21:36
E
p
i
l
House
Centeredo
Worship g
u
e
Prisoner to
Rome
Witness into Gentile
Territory
Witness in Judea,
Samaria
Witnesses to the Resurrection
Witness in Jerusalem
P
P
e
r
n
o
t
l
Temple
e
o
Centered
c
g
Worship
o
u
s
e
t
21:37
28:15
28:16-31
Acts
2
Acts
2
Life in the
Community
Coming of the Spirit & Peter’s Pentecost Sermon
2:1
2:42
2:43
47
Acts
2
Acts
Setting
Time
Peter’s Pentecost Sermon
Cause
Persons
State
Coming of the
Spirit
2
Effect
13 2:14
2:2
Life in the
Community
2:42
Climax
Descent of Reactions Declarations of Peter
the Spirit of
Answer
Multitude
Response to
Peter’s
Declarations
2:14
36 1.Qs.-What-Do?
Preparation (2:14a)
(37)
Speech (2:14b-36)
2. Answer
(a) IdentificationRepent &
Event:
Be Baptized
Fulfillment of
(38-40)
Joel’s prophecy
3. Action
(2:14b-21)
(41-42)
(“Men of Judah…give ear
to my words”)
(b) Implications-Event:
Exaltation of
Jesus (2:22-36)
(“Men of Israel…hear
these words”)
2:1
2:2
4 2:5
13
Qs. - What does this mean? (2:13)
2:37
42 2:43
47
Logic of the Passage:
Preparation/Realization
2:1 - Setting
2:2-47 - Realization
(1) Time - Day - Pentecost
(2) Persons - They (cf. 1:15-26)
Together
(3) Situation
In one place
Recurrence of Question (and Causation)
(1) Question - Crowd: “What does this mean?” (2:12)
Answer of Peter (Apostles) (2:14-36) (Cause)
(2) Question - Crowd: “What shall we do?” (2:37) -> (Effect)
Answer of Peter (Apostles) (2:38-40)
The coming of the
Spirit (2:2-13)
(Cause)
Causation
Peter’s bold Pentecostal
sermon (2:14-36)
(Effect)
Climax
(1) Re. existence of the community (2:1-47)
Continuing graced existence
(and continuing increase) of
the community (2:43-47)
Pouring out of Spirit and large
evangelistic response
(2) Re. the Pentecost Sermon (2:14-42)
Peter’s Sermon
Declaration of the
status of crucified
Jesus:
God has made Jesus
both Lord and
Christ
Acts 2 – Thought Flow and Interp

The following slides describe in detail
a thought flow through the material
in Acts 2 (similar to working at
detailed observation)
Acts 2, Detailed Analysis
Setting
(2:1)
Time - Day of Pentecost
All together (pa,ntej o`mou/ - cf. 1:14-15)
Situation
In one place (evpi. to. auvto - cf. 1:14-15)
Recurrence
I. The Event - Coming of the Spirit (2:2-13)
A. Descent of Holy Spirit (2:2-4)
1. Accompanying Signs (2:2-3) (Prepn)
Manner - Suddenly
a. Auditory - Sound Initial Action - Came Origin - Heaven (cf.1:9-11)
Nature (Comparison) - Like rushing, mighty wind
(Wind) (2:2)
Further Action - Filled All - House (inclusive
n
(Prep )
scope)
b. Visual - Tongues (glw/ssai)
(Fire) (2:3)
(Realn)
Nature - (Comparison) - As of fire
Phenomena
Distributed
Resting - Each one them
Inclusive
Individual
ScopeFocus
(Recurrence-vv.1-2)
Persons - All (Recurrence of inclusive scope)
2. Arrival - Spirit
Spirit (Cause)
Phenomena Filled - Holy
Manner - Other tongues (glw,ssaij)
Spoke
(2:4)
Causation
(lalei/n) (Effect)
B. Reactions of the Multitude (2:5-13) Agency - Spirit gave utterance
B. Reactions of the Multitude (2:5-13)
1. Setting - Persons (2:5) - a. Race - Jews
(Prepn)
b. National Origin - Every
nation under Heaven cf.v.2
c. Character - Devout
d. Situation - Dwelling in
Jerusalem
Realn
2. Substance (2:6-13)
a. Reaction - Bewildered, amazed, wondered (2:6-7a)
(sunecu,qh) (evxi,stanto) (evqau,mazon)
b. Reason - Reaction - Each heard Galileans speaking
(2:6b-11) in his own language (diale,ktw|) and
tongue (glw,ssaij) mighty works - God
Internal-Amazed, perplexed
(evxi,stanto) (dihpo,roun)
c. Further Reaction
(2:12-13)
Perplexity - All
(2:12)
Spoken - What does this mean?
Manner - Mocking
Mockery - Others
Possible Answers
(2:12)
Speech-Filled-New wine
vs. Human
Correct Answer
Explanation
II. The Proclamation - Peter’s Pentecost Sermon (2:14-42) vs. Divine
Explanation
II. The Proclamation - Peter’s Pentecost Sermon (2:14-42)
A. Declarations - Peter (2:14-36)
Lifted up - Voice
n
1. Prep - Peter standing (with 11) (cf.1:15)
Addressed Them
2. Speech (2:14-36)
(avpefqe,gxato)
a. Identification - Event: Fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy
(2:14b-21)
Men of Judea
Persons All dwell Jerusalem
(1) Introductory Call - Hear
Be known - You
n
Appeal
(2:14b)(Prep )
Give ear
Substantiation
(2) Explanation of Phenomena (2:15-21)
(Realn)
What it
is not
(a) Negative - Not drunkenness
(2:15)
vs.
What it
is
Contrast
Substantiation - 3rd Hour - Day
(b) Positive (2:16-21)
1 General - Spoken of - Prophet Joel (2:16)
2 Particular (Quotation-Joel 2:28-32)
(Also substantiation)
2 Particular (Quotation - Joel 2:28-32) (2:17-21) - Prophet Joel
a Effusion of Spirit (2:17-19)
Time - In Last Days
1. Preparation
Actor - God
(2:17)
a
General cause - Pour out my spirit -> All flesh (inclusive)
Cause
2. Promise
b Gender - Sons/Daughters - Prophesy
(2:17-18)
Particular Effect
Note: Particular
Young men - Vision
Age
causation with general
b
Old men - Dreams
a
substantiation, by
menservants
General cause - Pour out my spirit My
chiasm
My maidservants
Note also: The changes
And-They shall prophesy
in the quotation over
(Possibly climax)
against original wording
of Joel.
b Consequent signs (2:19-20)
Inclusive
Wonders-Heaven above (cf.2:2)
1. General
Scope
Blood
Signs-Earth beneath Fire
(2:19)
Effect
Vapor
Sun -> Darkness
2. Particular Events Move -> Blood
Great
(2:20)
Time-Before-Day of Lord Manifest
Persons-Whoever (inclusive)
Cause
Action-Calls upon-Name of Lord
c Consequent Salvation
Effect-Shall be saved (passive)
b. Implications - Event: Exaltation of Jesus (2:22-36)
Persons-Men of Israel
(1) Introductory call to hear
(cf. 2:14)
Appeal-Hear these words
(2:22a)
(2) Story of Jesus (as it bears upon the pouring out - Spirit)
Person Identity-Jesus of NazarethMighty works
(a) Death
Attestation-By God
Wonders (cf.v.19)
--In your most
Put to
Signs
death by
Circumstance-Delivered up-acc. to plan &
You
(2:22-23) Murder foreknowledge-God (Divine purpose)
Actions-Crucified/Killed (Rec.)
Deeds-You
vs. Contrast
Means-Lawless men (human crime)
(b) Resurrection/Exaltation
(2:24-36)
raised and Exalted
by God
3-Fold Witness
Affirmation (24)
1 Witness - Scripture Proof (25-31)
(24-31)
Affirmation (32a)
2 Witness - Apostles
Proof (32b)
(32)
3 Witness-Pouring out-Spirit Proof (33-35)
Lord
(Climax-Sermon) (33-36) Affirmation (36) Christ
Causation
B. Response to Peter’s Declarations (2:37-42)
1. Question - What shall - Do?
Inter. (2:37)
Repent
Appeal Be baptized -> Forgiveness of sins (cf.vv.2223,36)
Persons-Every one-You (inclusive/individual)
a. Particular
Substance-Receive gift-H.S.
(38-39)
Promise
Objects You/Your children (part.)
Note: Both causation
Everyone-Lord calls (Gen.)
and substantiation
(cf.v.21)
2. Answer (38-40)
Generalization
b. General-Witnessed/Exhorted-Save yourselves-This crooked
(40)
generation
Causation
3. Actions
(41-42)
Conversion (About 3000) (41) (Cause)
Existence (42) (Effect)
a. Teaching - Apostles
b. Fellowship
c. Breaking of bread
d. Prayers (transitional to vv.43-47)
Acts 2 – Historical-Cultural and
Interpretative Work


The following is a study of
background work on Acts 2; Trying
to answer the question, “What does
this mean?”
It ends with a study regarding the
“Fullness of the Spirit” in Acts.
Acts 2:1-13 Pentecost Event
1. Chapter 1 – Day 1 - Day of Ascension
Chapter 2 – Day 2 - Day of Pentecost
2. Chapter 1 - Inert Spectators –
Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking? (1:11)
Chapter 2 – Energized Prophets –
Are not all these who are speaking (prophesizing?)
Galileans? (2:7)
Acts 2:1-13 Pentecost Event
3. Event has feel of Old Testament Echo (Spiritual déjà vu)
•
Genesis 11:1-9 Tower of Babel
• Foundational story about language; prepare for world-wide
witness
• Luke 1:8-23; Zechariah in Temple struck dumb
yet is later “filled with Holy Spirit” (1:67) and prophesizes
regarding Israel’s hope in salvation (1:68-79).
Note: Place where Zechariah could not speak (Temple)
Place where it was restored (home)
•
Exodus 19:16-20 Mt. Sinai
• Note the change of location of divine revelation
• From Mt and desert to city (polis) and house (oikos)
• These represent the major sites of witness in Acts
Acts 2:1-13 Pentecost Event
3. Event has feel of Old Testament Echo (Spiritual déjà vu)
•
Isaiah 6 Temple of the Lord
• Note change of spatial dimension
• Theophany in Temple vs. private residence
•
Joel 2:16-21
• Hold till later
Acts 2:1-13 Pentecost Event
4. The Galilean Issue
•
•
Not just what they were hearing but who was speaking (2:7)
Luke-Acts treats Galilee 3 ways:
1. Part of the larger nation of Israel
(Luke 4:44; 23:5, Acts 10:37)
2. Inferior regional distinction
(Acts 4:13, John 1:46, 7:15)
3. Not to mention the closer association
with the gentile world (Mt 4:15, Luke 6:17, 7:1-10)
5. The Global Scope
•
•
Every nation under heaven
All nations may be represented by no ethnic diversity (all
appear to be Diaspora Jews
Acts 2:14-36 Pentecost Interpreted
What Does This Mean? (2:12)
•
•
Peter’s Joel 2 quotation is programmatic for Acts
Much as Jesus’ Isaiah 61quotation is programmatic for Luke
(4:16-19; see also 7:21-22)
•
Peter’s sharp temporal change
• Joel 2:28 “Afterward”
• Joel 3:1 (LXX) “In those days and at that time”
• Acts 2:17 “In the last days I will pour out my Spirit”
• The indeterminate “times or seasons” known only to
the Father in Acts 1:7 is now made known as God declares
(2:17)
Acts 2:14-36 Pentecost Interpreted
What Does This Mean? (2:12)
•
God will dissolve (suspend?) heaven-earth Spatial Dimensions
“I will show wonders from heaven above and signs on the
earth below” (2:19)
Via…
1. Visions and dreams (2:17)
• Young men...old men is reversed in Acts from Joel
• Elderly Zechariah (1:8-20) and Simeon (2:25-35) but
from that point on in Luke-Acts younger men see and
hear.
• Apostles see heaven opened in 1:9-11, so expect to see
further revelations
Acts 2:14-36 Pentecost Interpreted
What Does This Mean? (2:12)
•
God will dissolve (suspend?) heaven-earth Spatial Dimensions
“I will show wonders from heaven above and signs on the earth
below” (2:19)
Via…
1. Visions and dreams (2:17)
2. Wonders and signs (2:19-20)
• For the most part in Luke-Acts signs-wonders are
acts of mercy to relieve the suffering of humanity
from disease, demons and death…only occasionally
does Jesus manipulate the forces of nature
Acts 2:14-36 Pentecost Interpreted
What Does This Mean? (2:12)
•
God will dissolve (suspend?) heaven-earth Spatial Dimensions
“I will show wonders from heaven above and signs on the
earth below” (2:19)
Via…
1. Visions and dreams (2:17)
2. Wonders and signs (2:19-20)
3. Prophecy (2:18)
• In addition to signs and wonders…the Spirit will anoint
men and women to prophesy. The stage is set for Peter to
prophesy but also for sons and daughters also.
Acts 2:14-36 Pentecost Interpreted
What Does This Mean? (2:12)
•
God will dissolve (suspend?) gender and class bias
“I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days” (2:17-18)
•
• Luke 1-2, Elizabeth, Mary, Anna
• Luke 8:1-5
Do note the andocentric words of Peter’s speech
• Men of Judea (2:14)
• Men of Israel (2:22)
• men-brothers (2:29)
• But notice the regional expansion move to familial. The next
move may incorporate households (see Luke 8:21)
Acts 2:14-36 Pentecost Interpreted
What Does This Mean? (2:12)
•
The last line of the Joel prophecy (Acts 2:21) raises another
interesting question:
“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord (ku,rioj)
will be saved.'
1. Who is the Lord?
• God (qeo,j) used 8x’s in 2:22-36
• Yet the definition is being reoriented through Jesus’
• Life (2:22)
• Death (2:23)
• Resurrection (2:24, 32)
• Exaltation (2:32, 36)
Acts 2:14-36 Pentecost Interpreted
What Does This Mean? (2:12)
•
The last line of the Joel prophecy (Acts 2:21) raises another
interesting question:
“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
1. Who is the Lord?
2. Who needs to be saved?
• Jesus…whom YOU crucified and killed.
• Peter ignores the specific Jewish groups who were involved
in the trial and death (chief priests, scribes, temple elite and
Judas) plus the functional involvement of the Romans.
• Rather Peter puts the full blame on the listening audience
and the “entire house of Israel” (2:36)
• The fate of the entire nation of Israel hangs in the balance
because the people have rejected God’s saving purpose.
Acts 2:14-36 Pentecost Interpreted
What Does This Mean? (2:12)
•
The last line of the Joel prophecy (Acts 2:21) raises another
interesting set of questions:
“And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'
1. Who is the Lord?
2. Who needs to be saved?
3. Why?
• Salvation is no longer found in the security of ethnicity
but or in the Old Covenant but In the name of Jesus
(2:38-39)
The Kerygma in Acts
1. The age of fulfillment, or the coming of the Kingdom of
God is at hand (vv. 16-21)
2. This coming of the kingdom has taken place thru the
ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus (vv.22-23)
3. By virtue of the resurrection, Jesus is exalted at the right
hand of God as the Messianic head of the new Israel
(vv.24-36)
4. The H.S. in the church is the sign of Christ’s present
power and glory (v.33)
5. The Messianic age will shortly reach its consummation in
the second coming of Christ. (vv.34-35)
6. Forgiveness, the H.S., and salvation come w/ repentance
(vv.38-39)
- C.H. Dodd, Apostolic Preaching and Its Development
Acts 2 - Fullness of the Spirit
1 Arguments for Subsequent Experience
a. In Acts 8 the Samaritans “receive” the Spirit some time
after they believe and are baptized.
b. In Acts 19:2 the aorist participle is employed, possibly
translated: “Have you received the H.S. after you (cf.
Acts 10:29) believed?”
c. In all the Gospels (including Luke) the disciples are
pictured as believers (e.g., Lk 9:1-2; 10:20; Mt. 12:4650; Jn.15-17)
d. In John 20:20, on the evening of Easter, Jesus breathes
on the disciples and exhorts them to receive the Spirit
Conclusion: At Pentecost the disciples were fully
converted and already had an initial experience w. the
Spirit - Pentecost a subsequent experience w. the Spirit
Acts 2 - Fullness of the Spirit
2 Arguments for Initial Experience
a. In Acts the phrases “fullness/filled w/. The Spirit,”
“receive the Spirit,” “baptized w/. the H.S.,” “the
Spirit” “poured out,” etc. seem to be used
interchangeably, and to refer to the same experience
(see references throughout). All of these are first
experiences w. the Spirit, and they are often clearly
linked to conversion (e.g., 10:44-47; 15:8).
b. Acc. to context, scriptural testimony, and grammarians,
the aorist participle. often indicates contemporaneous
action vs. antecedent action; this is esp. true in
Luke/Acts when the participle follows the finite verb,
as it does in Acts 19:2.
Acts 2 - Fullness of the Spirit, cont.
2 Arguments for Initial Experience
c. In Luke (and in all the Gospels) the disciples do not
have any experience of the Spirit during Jesus’
earthly ministry. The Spirit in Lk is restricted to
the person of Jesus (Lk. 11:13; 12:12; Acts 10:2122; 17:20-21). In Jn, the “counselor” comes only
after Jesus is gone (14:17,25-26; 16:7).
d.
The accounts of Acts 2 and 8 represent unique
events in salvation history, and ought therefore not
to be pressed as normative.
Conclusion: The fullness of the Spirit involves the
initial reception of the Spirit, normally experienced
as part of conversion.